Concept T shirts Reviews

Melville became the archetypal director of French ‘policiers’, but this was his first. Jet black shadows, cigarettes and trench coats - he took the props of forties US film noir and added a complexity that was pure Gallic.

With the great Belmondo (Breathless) in the lead this film is full of ambiguity that is never entirely explained. Indeed the only part of the film that doesn’t work well is the long exposition that Belmondo has to give at the end to make some sort of sense of the foregoing action. Long flashbacks seem to change the meaning of what we have experienced - although we do not know who we can trust and Belmondo’s explanation could be a self-serving fabrication.

Melville has created a film that replicates elements of the great noirs that had come before, but Le Doulos is not a classic on a par with those Bogart was making years before. Still it is a film that repays careful watching.

A thousand years ago

a password meant you mattered, belonged, were trusted.

You kept it locked in your mind and its importance made it impossible to forget.

Today, we have hundreds. Boring, stupid passwords for

boring, stupid tasks. And we forget them all and panic.

Where did I write that down?

And what’s my username?

That was never a worry in 1066.

Twitter is the current internet buzz, but for once it is not all hype. Twitter sounds - and is - incredibly simple.  It allows people to send 140 character messages that everyone can see. This is an immediate means of disseminating information around the web.  It is in real time, it does not involve anyone visiting your site to get the information.

In the past people have read novels to help see the world from other perspectives and experience life through other people’s eyes. Twitter allows this to happen immediately, and through the eyes of hundreds of people. Using Twitter I can learn what everyday life is like for people in China, New Zealand, Poland…This is a completely new possibility and one that may become extremely important as means of instant, global person-person contact.

If you want to follow my life (a UK artist!) Sign up for Twitter and add artistx as a friend!

I admit it, I’m not up on Armenian cinema. Here though is a great film set in post-Soviet Armenia. The landscapes are cold, snowy and inspiring - the poverty is brutal and unremitting. The extreme temperatures exacerbate the horrors that the people have to endure, yet the film is lyrical and upbeat. What happens?  Not a lot - this is not for action movie fans. Two pensioners realise they can be happier with each other than their memories of former partners.
As their hearts change so the snow that covers everything starts to melt.  We leave with a sense of success, that people can make a difference and can change for the better. As a snapshot of a different, almost unimaginable life this is well-worth seeing. Almost documentary in its photography, Vodka Lemon deserves all the plaudits it has received.

Enjoy!

Another Jane Austen two-hour adaption to finish the the weekend, and another rollicking blast from the start. Austen’s text is ‘helped’ to become more 21st century by Andrew Davies (Mr Darcy, etc etc) although whether this is necessary is not certain - Austen’s themes are universal and remain the same today as when she was writing.
Lightened and simplified as television generally must, the plot romps along, though always clearly marking where it is heading. Felicity Jones (previously heard on the Archers!) is if anything too pretty to play Catherine, and shows the simple sensibility of her character very well. JJ Feild makes a great Henry Tilney, not allowing himself to smoulder, but attracting Catherine with his intellect.

Another great Austen diversion from ITV - catch it if you can on repeats.

Please give your views below.

Jane Austen T shirts!

We have started a range of Jane Austen inspired T shirts.

The second surprise on TV this week was seeing Giles Coren, food critic of the Times fronting an advert for Bird’s Eye. I enjoy many of Coren’s articles and was horrified to see him as the face of a big bland food company. His columns stand for fresh, local, organic, sustainable food, small producers, knowing the name of the cow you are eating. However you cut it , advertising for Bird’s eye is a strange choice. Maybe he knows something we don’t.
Giles, let’s have an explanation! I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, so what was your thinking?!